KOTA KINABALU: There is a need to work with industries outside protected areas to ensure orang utan in Borneo, now surviving in mixed landscapes, can thrive in the long run, say experts.
In an article published on online journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change earlier this month, they highlighted the need for peaceful coexistence between people and orang utan in non-protected areas, which include oil palm, timber, acacia and rubber landscapes.
“This is because since 2008, researchers have found that orang utan are travelling through varied forest and farm-type landscapes to find food and mates, as they use forest patches in non-protected areas as a critical linkage to protected forest, ” said Pongo Alliance project director Felicity Oram, one of the co-authors of the article.